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Edmund Rice International
Novena 2005: Mayberry Family, Indianapolis, USA
Dear Friends of Blessed
Edmund,
There were many requests
for prayers this year from many parts of the world. Please include all of
these together with the main intention for this year’s International Novena.
It was never intended to narrow the range of people we pray for. Your Local
Promoters will keep you in touch with these. However, when we come to an
International Novena, it gives solidarity to our prayer that we all
include one particular intention with all the other local intentions that we
pray for throughout the year through the intercession of Edmund.
 This year’s Novena runs
for the nine days from Wednesday, 27 April, until Thursday, 5 May, the
International Feast of Blessed Edmund. The intention of the Novena is the
welfare of the Mayberry Family, Indianapolis, USA. Mum, Bridget, 28 years of
age, is suffering from a severe form of leukaemia with kidney complications.
Baby, Cody, just one year old, was born prematurely and has spent much of his
short life on a ventilator. Dad, Doug, has had the cross of looking on
helplessly at his sick wife and son, while he has to go out to work as the only
breadwinner.
 How
the Mayberry Family came to be selected is fortuitous – providential, some would
say! Dr Daire Keogh, History Lecturer at St Patrick’s College,
Drumcondra, Dublin, and a recent biographer of Blessed Edmund Rice, was in Rome
as part of a sabbatical during the early months of 2005, completing research at
the Christian Brothers’ International Archives. He was accompanied by his
American-born wife, Katie, and their two children, John and Cora. During their
stay in Rome, Katie’s mother, Mrs. Bonnie Schott, came on a visit from
her home in Indianapolis, USA. A woman of strong faith, Bonnie was moved by the
Edmund Rice story, especially the part about Edmund’s young wife and baby
daughter. Hearing that we were planning an International Novena in preparation
for Blessed Edmund’s Feast Day on 5 May, she suggested her young niece and
family as a worthy focus for the Novena.
Here in Bonnie’s own words
is an account of the illnesses suffered by the Mayberry Family:
“Bridget, now aged 28, was born to my sister, Marie Bernadette (‘Bernie’)
Collins, in July 1976 and nearly died at birth. Bernie had her baptized at the
hospital and I was her godmother “over the phone”. Bridget survived and things
seemed normal for a while, but her mother’s health deteriorated rapidly and she
died in February 1979. Her Dad remarried, and Bridget was not reared as a
Catholic. We all attended her wedding to Doug Mayberry in 2002. One year later
Doug and Bridget were returning home after celebrating their first anniversary.
They were expecting their first child. Suddenly, at a stop sign, a truck
reversed into them and Bridget was badly bruised. The doctors were concerned
about her and her unborn baby. Bridget’s blood pressure went dangerously high
and she was having severe headaches. The baby’s heart was going crazy at times,
and it dropped very low twice. Finally, on February 2, 2004, the doctors
performed an emergency C-section to deliver Cody because Bridget was having a
lot of trouble breathing and they thought they were going to lose both the
mother and the baby. Cody was born when he was only 25 weeks in the womb,
instead of the normal 40 weeks. He weighed only 1 lb., 7 oz, at birth and was
only 12 inches long. He spent over seven months in the hospital, much of it on
a ventilator, and has scar and lung problems as a result. He has had heart
surgery to close a leaking valve when he was two months old.
In
June 2004, while Cody was still in hospital, Bridget was diagnosed as having a
rare disease which affects the kidneys among other things and was referred to a
cancer doctor, Dr. Wu. After a bone marrow biopsy, she was informed that also
had B-cell lymphoma. She had six rounds of chemo-treatment, and the hospital
thought they had the cancer under control. Then in February 2005, right after
her little son’s first birthday party, she began to have dizzy spells. The
hospital found that she had little or no white blood cells and hence no immune
system. They then discovered that she had a secondary form of cancer called
myeloma, which is connected to her bone marrow problem. Her doctors are stumped
and Bridget is now awaiting the possibility of going to M.D.Anderson Hospital in
Texas for further testing. Bridget and Doug, her husband, are devastated. They
are just normal, hard-working people who always paid their own way in life.
They have high school education and are buying a modest home. Bridget had to go
on indefinite work leave because of her health problems. Neighbors and friends
have rallied round, but, as you know, medical expenses in the US can be truly
expensive.
I have
asked some of my closest family and friends to consider helping them a little
and they are on prayer lines all over Indianapolis. I am very grateful for the
love and prayers the Edmund Rice Network will shower on Doug, Bridget, and Cody,
through the novena. I know that God has all of them in His loving arms. I have
ensured that a first-class relic of Blessed Edmund will be available to the
family during the Novena. We are in touch with Brother Tim Smyth, the US
National Promoter for the Edmund Rice Cause at this time.”
I am sure that all of you,
like me, feel humbled in the face of such illness and misfortune. I am sure
that, considering Edmund Rice’s own family problems at one stage of his life, he
will plead before the Throne of God for all the members of the Mayberry Family.
Let us join our prayers to that of Edmund for Doug, Bridget and Cody during the
Novena.
The Novena, Wednesday, 27
April – Thursday, 5 May
There are various ways of
making the Novena. Some people who live near a Church may wish, if it isn’t too
inconvenient, to attend a Mass on each of the days of the Novena but, at least,
on Thursday, 5 May, the Feast Day of Blessed Edmund Rice. However, the
minimum should be the daily recital of the special Edmund Rice prayer for an
intention, said either individually after Holy Communion or in small groups.
The prayer is as follows:
“O God, You inspired
Blessed Edmund Rice to follow your Son in a life of consecrated service of the
poor and of all in need of a truly Christian education. Grant through his
intercession the petition I now make:
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That the
Mayberry Family, Bridget, Doug, and Cody, may be restored to one another
in full health and happiness.
We ask this
through Christ our Lord. Amen.” |
Others, who have access to
Internet, may wish to download a selection of extra prayers, under the heading
‘Novena’ in our Roman website,
http://edmundclt.org . These include a very nice Litany of Blessed Edmund
Rice. In the meantime, keep Bridget, Doug and little Cody in your hearts and in
your prayers. If any fresh ideas strike you, please e-mail me the details so
that I can include them in the May edition of “From the Postulator’s Desk”. May
the Good Lord bless you and yours and may Blessed Edmund guide you in the days
and months ahead.
Donal S. Blake CFC,
Postulator/Cong. Historian,
00-39-06-360-8971
blake.d@tiscalinet.it
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